By Scott Gilfoid: WBO bantamweight champion Zolani Tete (26-3, 21 KOs) will be defending his title next against his #1 WBO mandatory challenger 42-year-old former 2 division world champion Omar Narvaez (47-2-2. 25 KOs) next). There’s a purse bid scheduled on Friday.
Narvaez is a good fighter, but he’s 42, and Tete is at the top of his game. This is probably one-sided fight for Tete. He’s really turned his career around since suffering losses to Moruti Mthalane, Juan Alberto Rosas and Roberto Domingo Sosa. Those losses took place 5 to 7 years ago for Tete. He’s won his last 10 fights since then with 7 of those wins was knockout wins.
Tete looked superb in winning his last 4 fights in beating Siboniso Gonya, Arthur Villanueva, Victor Ruiz and Jose Santos Gonzalez. The 29-year-old Tete is in his prime right now, he’s likely going to destroy the much older Narvaez in the same way Naoya Inoue did in 2014.
Narvaez has had 2 long runs as a world champion. He held the WBO flyweight title from 2002 to 2010. That’s an 8-year period where Narvaez held the WBO flyweight title. That is an incredibly long time for a fighter to hold down a world title. Narvaez then moved up to super flyweight and captured the WBO title, and held that belt for 4 years from May 2010 to December 2014.
Narvaez lost his WBO title to unbeaten Naoya Inoue by a 2nd round knockout on December 30, 2014. Narvaez has won his last 4 fights since that defeat. Narvaez’s last win was against previously unbeaten Nikolai Potapov last October in a 7th round stoppage win.
Tete, 29, is looking good right now, and he might be the best fighter in the 118-lb. division. He’s interested in fighting unification matches against the likes of IBF/WBC champion Ryan Burnett and WBC champion Luis Nery. Burnett’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport isn’t interested in matching his fighter against Tete right now. Hearn says there’s no money in a fight against Tete. The financials aren’t right for Hearn to match his popular fighter Burnett against Tete.
If Hearn fails to ever match Burnett against Tete, then you must believe that his claims about the money not being right won’t be believed by the boxing fans. They’ll see it as Hearn protecting Burnett. Hearn did match Burnett against IBF bantamweight champion Zhanat Zhakiyanov last October in a unification fight, which Burnett won by an ugly 12 round unanimous decision in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Burnett spent most of the fight wrestling and holding Zhakiyanov to keep him from throwing punches.
There’s a significant difference between Zhakiyanov and Tete. Hearn was fine with Burnett fighting Zhakiyanov. You didn’t hear Hearn bellyaching about the financials not being right for that fight to be made, did you? But when it comes to Burnett fighting Tete, Hearn starts making stammering about the money not being right for the risk that his fighter would have to take. It seems obvious that Hearn doesn’t fancy Burnett’s chances to beat Tete, which is why the fight won’t get made now and likely ever.